Attorney defends right to carry gun to Batman showing

Connecticut Post

Staff and wire reports

Updated 11:29 pm, Wednesday, August 8, 2012

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano holds a press conference about the arrest of city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, who was carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

City attorney Sung-Ho Hwang in his office after a press conference, where he gave a statement about his arrest for carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, in New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

City attorney Sung-Ho Hwang in his office after a press conference,...

New Haven city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, gives a statement to the media after being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012. Hwang doea have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Photo: Christian Abraham

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano holds a press conference about the arrest of city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, who was carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman answers media questions after a press conference about the arrest of city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, who was carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

New Haven city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, gives a statement to the media after being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012. Hwang doea have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Photo: Christian Abraham

New Haven city attorney Sung-Ho Hwang, gives a statement to the media after being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon at a movie theater, at City Hall in downtown New Haven, Conn. on Wednesday August 8, 2012. Hwang doea have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Sung-Ho Hwang, 46, a New Haven, Conn. attorney, was arrested at a New Haven movie theater prior to a showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" after police said he was seen carrying a handgun in his waistband. Police said Hwang has a permit to carry a pistol, but didn't comply with their orders when they questioned him inside the theater. He was charged with breach of peace and interfering with an officer.
Photo: Contributed

NEW HAVEN -- A prominent New Haven immigration attorney who was arrested Tuesday night for carrying a pistol in his waistband when he went to a showing of the "The Dark Knight Rises" said he fully complied with the law.

Sung-Ho Hwang, 46, was carrying a pistol in his waistband, near the small of his back. While Hwang does have a valid permit to carry a pistol in Connecticut, New Haven police spokesman David Hartman said he refused to comply with officers who questioned him in the theater after other patrons were evacuated and patted down.

The arrest came less than three weeks after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 others at a Colorado theater on opening night of the new "Batman" film.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said municipalities should be allowed to limit where guns can be carried.

"Sometimes just because something is legal doesn't make it right," DeStefano said.

Hwang, president-elect of the New Haven County Bar Association, was released Tuesday night on a promise to appear in court on the misdemeanor charges of breach of peace and interfering with police.

At a news conference outside his office Tuesday, Hwang said he fully complied with the law and cooperated with police. He said he brought the gun to protect himself late at night.

"I understand we're in a state of heightened security since the incident in Colorado," he said. "I really feel for those victims, and I pray for their family members."

"It's not specifically illegal to be in a theater with a handgun," he said. "But what often happens is that people are charged with breach of peace if you act in such a way that you alarm other people, which, by definition, is breach of peace."

He said since more than one person called police to complain, "clearly he was upsetting people, which makes it a breach of peace."

To make matters worse, Lawlor said, the suspect was apparently by himself at the late movie, which further frightened people in the theater.

"And on top of all of that, he apparently was uncooperative when police arrived -- all of that, taken together, is pretty suspicious," Lawlor said. "And let's say, for example, that the police decided to do nothing. You can imagine what the fallout would have been."

On July 20, James Holmes, 24, opened fire on a packed Aurora, Colo. theater on opening night of "The Dark Knight Rises," the third film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Holmes has been charged with 12 counts of murder and several other offenses.

Hwang's attorney, Hugh Keefe, called his client "a leading citizen of the city of New Haven."

"He's doing everything by the book," Keefe said. "He has a permit to carry. He's out at a movie theater. Suddenly, people are pointing guns at him."

Keefe said it was his understanding that police were not going to arrest Hwang, who lives near the theater, once they realized he had a gun permit, but New Haven Chief Dean M. Esserman ordered the arrest.

"If somebody has a problem with that law, then they ought to go to Hartford and change it, not make baseless arrests," Keefe said.

Hwang said the real issue was violent crime in New Haven.

DeStefano acknowledged the city has had its share of violence, but has enacted reforms including new police leadership, walking beats and a task force on shootings. New Haven had 34 homicides last year and 11 so far this year.

Since the Colorado shootings, several instances of people bringing weapons to showings of the film have been reported across the country.

Over the weekend, a man in northeast Ohio brought a gun, ammunition and several knives to a screening because he wanted to protect himself in case someone tried to replicate the shooting, his attorney said. The man was arrested.

Hartman said police were called to the Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas, 86 Temple St., at 10:11 p.m., when theater management reported a man inside had a handgun.

When officers arrived, an usher told them at least three people had reported an armed man was inside, but it was not clear what theater he was in, Hartman said. The man had the gun in his waistband and it was not concealed, witnesses told police. Officers received a description of Hwang and began to search for him.

Police first checked Theater 2, but the suspect wasn't located there, Hartman said.

Officers then went into Theater 1, where about a dozen patrons were set to watch the "Dark Knight" film, which hadn't started, Hartman said. The theatergoers were told to raise their hands as officers entered and the house lights were raised, he said. They were patted down and escorted outside, Hartman said. It was then that police confronted, and eventually arrested, Hwang.

Hartman said the theater hadn't received any threats before the incident.